A month after an opportunity arose to purchase a Canon 7D locally (I simply wasn’t ready, and there weren’t many reviews of the camera at the time), I have pulled the trigger and a 7D body is on its way from Robert’s. I will be photographing the Mizzou Tigers’ next two football games against Baylor and Kansas State, and will report back on my experience with the body afterwords.
The other night I found myself on assignment in the pouring rain and my 1D Mark II N, as well as my cell phone and a 50mm f/1.4 lens, all came into contact with the buckets of cold water falling from the sky. After I got home, as a result of improper weather precautions, generally wet conditi0ns, and some forgetfulness regarding the acclimation of a cold camera body to a warmer, drier environment, I found myself resorting to dunking my lens, cell phone, and even my 1D II N into containers of rice. To recount: rice: 1, weather: 1. My cell phone came back alive, but my 50mm is on its way to Canon’s facility in Jamesburg, N.J. at this moment.
What I didn’t mention much in my previous posting was the sad state of my 1D II N’s viewfinder. It completely fogged up after coming home, and I immediately began to kick myself for not sealing it in a plastic bag before taking it inside, as the viewfinder had not been a problem–had not been fogged up–before bringing it in. Absolutely brain-dead stupid!!!
1D II N with rear viewfinder cover plate / convex lens removed.
Anyone who knows me well knows that one of my greatest personality flaws is my impatience. When I want something to work, I want it to work right now. I also have a tendency to tinker with the electronics that I own; when they stop working and they’re within warranty, I’ll send them in for repairs. Why not? But when something is long-since out of warranty, I have the proper tools, and the fix looks like something anyone can do, why should I spend lots of money to FedEx the product to the manufacturer to have them do exactly what I could have done, and have them bill me for it?
Story continued after the jump!
Michael Reichmann of the Luminous Landscape just posed a review of working with a pre-production Canon 7D with beta firmware on his Web site. Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in the new camera body.
Canon has finally announced firmware to address the total lack of manual control (save white balance and exposure compensation) that one has for video recording on the 5D Mark II. Still missing in action is manual audio level control…….maybe they don’t want to kill the sales of the new BeachTek adapter? I wouldn’t mind, though–it’s $380 that I don’t want to spend!
The firmware will not be available for download until 2 June, but at least it’s coming!
A RadioShack 2CR5 that I purchased earlier tonight...
Tonight I was photographing at Rob Hulett’s mixed martial-arts training gym for a story on some of the people training for the “Battle at the Blue Note” on Friday in Columbia, Mo. as part of a group project in my Advanced Techniques course. I’ve been using the Canon ST-E2 wireless flash commander quite a bit recently, and on my mental “to-do” list I had added “get a spare battery,” but that never did happen. As luck would have it, the battery that’s been plugging along inside of it since 2007 chose tonight to kick the bucket.
“Fortunately,” I thought, “there’s a grocery store across the street.” The 2CR5 that runs the ST-E2 used to be a very common lithium battery, and I know that I purchased the previous two batteries for the ST-E2 at places like grocery stores and pharmacies. However, not the Gerbes/Kroger, nor two Walgreens carried the 2CR5. Out of absolute desperation, I asked my GPS to find a Radio Shack and, sure enough, they had one…….for $20. No joke. This is a battery that should cost no more than $12. I grumbled and bought it any ways, jumping back into my car to rush back to the Hulett House Gym.
But, what did I discover upon my return? The 2CR5 that Radio Shack sold me–their own brand, of course–is so weak that the ST-E2 did not turn on at first, and then, once it did, it allowed me to get one photograph before pausing to recycle for six or seven seconds. This is a transmitter. It has NEVER had a recycling time in the past.
To my horror, I realized I hadn’t packed a TTL cord in my bag, and I had to bounce the flash off of the ceiling of the room while mounted on camera. I know that you just shuddered from reading that–believe me, it wasn’t easy to do!
I am left to wonder if this is a battery format that is simply on its way out. I am going to order some (name brand) batteries online and also try to return the Radio Shack P.O.S. battery tomorrow. In the mean time, I do wonder about the future of the 2CR5, and with it, the Canon ST-E2.
So, this is not a great, in-depth interview, but it is rather a practice run at setting up constant light sources, positioning the interview subject, and finally recording, capturing, and editing the result.
I asked Jarrad Henderson, the subject of my earlier portrait studio work, what constitutes the most exotic food he’s had in his lifetime.
Shot on a Canon HV20 with a Sennheiser wireless microphone running through a BeachTek mini to XLR box. Lit with LitePanels LED floods.
Last night I was experimenting with the higher range of ISO’s on the 5D Mark II. As a previous owner of the original 5D, I can say that the improvement in sensitivity versus noise is significant. It’s still not a Nikon D3, but it’s very useful. ISO 3200 is very usable, and I’ve made a few images at ISO 6400 that are not objectionable, but do lack some detail. From my experience over the past month and a half, I think ISO 4000 represents the best compromise in terms of high ISO and preservation of detail.
Below is a photograph captured with the 85mm f/1.8, exposed 1/200 sec. @ f/1.8, ISO 4000
Watching darts with a candy neck tie, McNally's Irish Pub, 22 Feb. 2009, Columbia, Mo.
And for the pixel peepers, a 100% crop from her face (after the jump)…
For sale is a Really Right Stuff L-bracket for the Canon 5D body with the BGE4 battery grip attached. Note that this grip will not fit without the BGE4 mounted to the body. This is for Arca-Swiss style mounts (Wimberley, Really Right Stuff, Kirk Enterprises, Arca Swiss, etc.).
I leave L-brackets on the body at virtually all times, but this one only has a few signs of wear were the corner of the body would be. I’ve posted only one picture here, but I have many more here: www.david-kennedy.com/bracket. Also included is the allen key to screw the bracket into place.
I am asking for $110.00 (including shipping) to anywhere in North America (US, Canada, Mexico). $120.00 to anywhere in the world. I will accept PayPal.
